An early ingenious device consisted of a piece of phosphorus contained in a tube.  A piston fitted snugly into the tube, by means of which the air could be compressed and the phosphorus ignited.  Sulphur matches were ignited from the burning tinder, the latter being fired by flint and steel.  In 1828 another form of match consisted of a glass tube containing sulphuric acid and surrounded by a mixture of chlorate of potash and sugar.  A pair of nippers was supplied with each box of these “matches,” by means of which the tip of the glass tube could be broken off.  This liberated the acid, which upon mixing with the other ingredients set fire to them.  To this contrivance a roll of paper was attached which was ignited by the burning chemicals.

The lucifer or friction matches appeared in about 1827, but successful phosphorus matches were first made in about 1833.  The so-called safety match of the present time was invented in the year 1855.  To-day, the total daily output of matches reaches millions and perhaps billions.  Automatic machinery is employed in preparing the splints of wood and in dipping them into molten paraffin wax and finally into the igniting composition.

During recent years the principle of the tinder-box has been revived in a device in which sparks are produced by rubbing the mineral cerite (a hydrous silicate of cerium and allied metals) against steel.  These sparks ignite a gas-jet or a wick soaked in a highly inflammable liquid such as gasolene or alcohol.  This device is a tinder-box of the modern scientific age.

Naturally with the advent of electricity, electrical sparks came into use for lighting gas-jets and mantles and in isolated instances they have served as light-sources.  Doubtless, every one is familiar with the parlor stunt of igniting a gas-jet from the discharge from the finger-tips of static electricity accumulated by shuffling the feet across the floor-rug.

Although many of these methods and devices have been used primarily for making fire, they have served as emergency or momentary light-sources.  In the outskirts of civilization some of them are employed at the present time and various modern light-sources require a method of ignition.

III

PRIMITIVE LIGHT-SOURCES

Many are familiar with the light of the firefly or of its larvae, the glow-worm, but few persons realize that a vast number of insects and lower organisms are endowed with the superhuman ability of producing light by physiological processes.  Apparently the chief function of these lighting-plants within the living bodies is not to provide light in the sense that the human being uses it predominantly.  That is, these wonderful light-sources seem to be utilized more for signaling, for luring prey, and for protection than for strictly illuminating-purposes.  Much study has been given to the production of light by animals, because the secrets will be extremely valuable to mankind.  As one floats over tide-water on a balmy evening after dark and watches the pulsating spots of phosphorescent light emitted by the lowly jellyfishes, his imaginative mood formulates the question, “Why are these lowly organisms endowed with such a wonderful ability?”